Evaluation Part 2 - UNIT 16

Strengths of my first edit 

When looking at my first edit, I had conducted a focus group to find out what went well and what needed to be improved. When looking at the strengths of the first draft, I had found out that:

• The brief was met successfully

When looking at the brief, it had stated that "radio drama that informs, educates and entertains a family audience about the dangers and benefits of social media". From looking at this we can see that I have been able to meet the brief successfully as I was able to identify the advantages and disadvantages of using social media. Furthermore, one of the students in my focus group had stated that it was like listening to a radio show. This meant that it was realistic and was understood by the audience successfully. 

• The voice actors were good 

When the students were listening to my radio show, they understood that it was about social media, however to make the radio show even better they had stated that they liked the actors using a posh voice. This allowed the radio show to be more entertaining and therefore made it more enjoyable for the audience. They liked the technician's voice the most as they felt it was very posh and he delivered a good performance.

• Majority of sound effects and the voices were clear

Lastly, another improvement they were happy with was that they were happy with the levels of sound that was used. This was because it was clear and easy for them to understand. This allowed the radio show to be understood well and allowed the message to be brought across good. 

Weaknesses of my first edit

However, when I had told them this is my first draft, they were open to tell me what I could to improve this even more for my final draft. Some of the weaknesses they have stated for me to improve were the following: 

• Background was a bit loud at the beginning

At the beginning of the radio show, the background noises of the train and cars were a bit loud. This had made it difficult for the audience to understand what the actors had said. 

• A bit static

When listening at the actors, you could hear some static in the dialogue. This made a bit of confusion as they were wondering why that is included.

• Edit the sound 

When I was asking for some weaknesses, they had stated that the sound needed to be edited more. This included the sound levels of certain scenes that need to be increased to make sure everything was heard correctly. Another weakness was that some of the dialogue was repeated twice consecutively. 

• Add a sound track

When I had asked them what else I could do to improve, they had asked me to add a sound track. This is because it would introduce the radio show better. 

Improvements to my final edit 

When taking on the feedback of my focus group, I had decided to make the following improvements:

• Background was a bit loud at the beginning

In the image below, we can see that I was able to decrease the levels of the sound effects and increased the dialogue. This had allowed the sound to be more clearer for the audience. 

• A bit static

Due to me using the school equipment, I was not able to get rid of the static. This is because the microphones I had used for some of the scenes was old. The picture of the microphones I had used are shown below. Furthermore, the actors were not available to re-record. This led to me not being able to re-record scenes for my radio show. 

• Edit the sound 

I was able to change some of the sound and edit the levels of them. This is shown in the screen recording. This allowed the audio to be more clear. 

• Add a sound track

I loved the idea of using a sound track to end of the radio show. For that reason, I had decided to put the sound track in both the beginning and the end. This had allowed the radio show to be more memorable. This is shown in the screenshot below. 

Technical and auditory qualities

When thinking about the technical and auditory qualities of my radio show, I had to really think about the sample rate and bit rate. They are:

• Sample rate - The rate of the capture and playback.
• Bit rate - The number of bits used to describe each sample. 

Advantages of using technical and auditory qualities: 

When I was producing my radio show and for my final edit. I had decided that it would be an MP3 version. The table below shows the sample and bit rate for my radio show. 

	Sample rate	Bit rate
MP3	128 k/bit tate	0.13 Mbit/sec

This had allowed the quality of my radio show to be clear. 

Disadvantages of using technical and auditory qualities: 

However, due to the equipment being old, I was not able to produce a top level radio show compared to BBC Radio 4 which can. Next time if I was to improve my radio show, I will ensure that the equipment I use is up to date. This is so that my radio show can be clearer and eliminates the static. 

Overall using technical and auditory qualities meeting the brief: 

Overall by being able to use technical and auditory qualities allowed my radio programme to meet the brief. This is because I was able to create a programme that was good quality so that it can "entertain, inform and educate" the audience. 

This is for Unit 16.

Task Allocation 10

Production Week 10

 

Evaluation

Production Journey

When I had first started my production, I wanted to familiarise myself with all the resources I was going to use when I was going to record my radio drama. This included; starting up GarageBand, understanding how to use the microphones and understand how to record other sounds on my iPhone. When I started to record other sounds from my iPhone, I had wanted to know how to do it, so that it would become easier throughout my production. When starting up GarageBand, I had saw different areas which showed different sections of recording which was specific to the type of sound. This was incredibly useful, as I was able to ensure that if I had wanted to record dialogue, I was able to chose the voice area. This had allowed me to ensure that the audio was nice and clear and good quality. 

When recording different sounds in my production, I wanted to ensure I was able to get them myself. This was because I wanted to ensure that I do not get copyrighted from others. I had then decided it would be best to record the audio I needed on a Sony sound recorder and my iPhone. This helped a lot as I was able to go to different locations to record and be able to get the sounds I had wanted. 

To ensure that I was able to stick to my idea as much as possible, I was able to print out all of my pre-production material. This had ensured that everything was sticking to the idea as much as possible and saved time from going back to my blogger to look at what else I had needed to film. Furthermore, when I was using the equipment, I was able to bring it outside school with the permission of my teachers. This had allowed me to record all of the audio tracks I had needed instead of going to YouTube and extracting the files from there.  

After I had completed my focus group, and analysed my feedback, I then needed to go and record some extra audio. This was because when I was discussing everything with my peers, they had mentioned that the audio was really low compared to other audio tracks that were played. As a result of this, I had to use the equipment to go and record more audio. This had included the cars on the highway, the train departing from the train station and some of the actors voices. This had allowed me to replace the files I had in my first edit and made changes to them as much as possible. However, during that weekend, I wasn't able to use the equipment due to me being busy with other personal matters. However, I was able to still continue to work and rerecord some of my audio and add them to the final draft. This had allowed me to finish off my final edit and meet the deadline that was set by my teacher. 

When I was collecting feedback, one of my peers had spoken to me and said to make my edit better, to add a music track for the beginning and the end. I had thought about this and I had decided that it would be a good idea to do this as this will get more of the audience engaged with the story. Due to me thinking of using a music track, I thought it would be a smart idea to use the BBC Radio 4 theme music. This is because everyone knows BBC Radio 4 and it would be able to increase the overall audience. However, one problem was that I had to ensure that it was copyrighted music. This was because I wanted to ensure that I didn't get in trouble. So for that reason, I had went to my teacher and asked him. He was incredibly helpful and helped me find a wild track that could be used in my radio programme. 

When editing my edits for my radio programme, I wanted to ensure that everything was done to a good standard. In order for that to happen, I had decided to ensure that I would cut clips and ensured that they all made sense and linked together. This was so that any audio and sounds I didn't want can be deleted so that I can use the rest for the edits. 

When coming to upload both of the drafts, I had exported the file using an AIFF format. This was because I felt it was most suitable to use as I was editing on an Apple iMac. This had allowed the sound to have really high quality and didn't damaged or lower the rest of the other sounds in the process. 

When looking at the sounds of the audio tracks, I had to ensure that everything was loud and clear for the audience to understand. This had meant that I had to lower down the volume on certain sound effects to ensure that it was heard clearly. As a result of doing this, I was able to click on the clips and was able to adjust the sound to the correct volume. This was incredibly useful when putting together my final edit for my radio programme. 

After everything in the production stage was completed, I was able to upload it to Final cut and placed it onto YouTube. I was able to add a background and create a screen recording to show to the audience what the radio show was about and how far they were in the video. This is shown on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlMmqELfZHk

 

Final edit

 

Audio assets

 

Audio Assets	Description of audio assets
Dialogue	There will be dialogue throughout the entire radio programme which is voiced by the actors.
Sound of the train	When Harleen and Fajar are talking at the beginning, they are leaving the train station and there will be the sound of the train departing.
Sound of the automatic doors	When Yunus, Harleen and Fajar are walking into the school, the doors will start to open.
Sounds of crowd chatter	There will be a lot of crowd chatter from the beginning of the radio drama as its set in the train station and in the school.
Sounds of the Phone ringing	This will be when Yunus gets his phone out and tries to get Harleen and Fajar’s numbers.
Sounds of the cars on the highway	When Yunus, Harleen and Fajar are walking to the school, there will be the sounds of the cars passing by on the highway.
Sounds of the office phone ringing	This will be when Yunus presses the button to get the office people's attention to gain access to the school.